largefeature

There’s great entertainment in a strategy for “image and reputation management” commissioned last year by Alberta Health Services. Obtained by the NDP through Freedom of Information, this study cost taxpayers $16,000 before the whole AHS board was fired by the government in June 2013.

Alberta Health Services has a new CEO — again. The provincial health authority looked east for its latest leader, announcing Friday that health executive and nurse Vickie Kaminski will take the AHS reins, overseeing an organization at least ten times as large as the one she’s leaving behind.

After months of investigation, a two-volume report and a handful of recommendations to stop medical queue-jumping, most Albertans remain unconvinced the province’s health-care inquiry was worth the money.

Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne’s decision to sack the Alberta Health Services board can easily be justified. If you want to micromanage and make all the decisions, you shouldn’t maintain the pretence of an arm’s-length board as a fig leaf.

Alberta Health Services has had its share of bizarre moments, but it’s unlikely that anything will ever top the past two days, with the entire AHS board getting itself fired after fighting the government - for the sacred right to raise executive pay.

The standoff between the Tory government and the superboard it put in place to run Alberta’s health-care system is one more sign that AHS needs to be scrapped, say critics. On Tuesday, Health Minister Fred Horne said the government would not accept an Alberta Health Services board decision to award executive bonuses for the 2012-13 fiscal year, given the province’s tight financial times.

AHS boss Dr. Chris Eagle used the “R” word Wednesday — meaning rural — and health care may be headed for another range war. Nothing in Alberta health is harder to achieve than cuts, closures or alterations to hospitals and other facilities in rural areas.

After hearing from nurses, doctors and top health executives at Alberta’s first public inquiry in three decades, commissioner John Vertes must now determine whether he’s found that VIPS and other Albertans are receiving preferential medical care. The $10-million Health Services Preferential Access inquiry wrapped up testimony in Edmonton Thursday after 23 days of evidence involving 68 witnesses.

It’s ironic that after rooting around for weeks in the ruins of the old health regions, the queue-jumping inquiry has finally found two stark cases. And both happened after Alberta Health Services took over.

CALGARY — Funny thing about this health-care queue-jumping. Everybody seemed to know it went on, but nobody can quite recall anybody who did it, or who was asked to provide it. Stephen Duckett, testifying Tuesday by video from Australia, wrote a strong memo in 2009 to condemn so-called preferential access.

CALGARY — Former medical superboard CEO Stephen Duckett testified at a public inquiry Tuesday he understood there was an “acceptance of preferential access” for prominent patients at the now-defunct regional health authorities — but he initiated a 2009 memo on the topic only after the issue was brought to him by another senior executive. The May 2009 memo stating “it is not uncommon” for health executives to receive requests for preferential or sped-up care for VIPs is at the heart of the public inquiry, now underway in Edmonton.

Access to publicly-funded health care is “near and dear” to Albertans, and the province’s public inquiry into whether patients jumped the queue to get access to medical services intends to ensure that residents can have faith in the system, the inquiry’s lead counsel said Monday. The $10-million inquiry — the province’s first public inquiry in 30 years — heard from its first witnesses in Edmonton Monday.

Health executive Lynn Redford, former Alberta Health Services boss Stephen Duckett and Liberal Leader Raj Sherman are among the witnesses who are set to testify in the province’s $10-million judicial inquiry into medical system queue-jumping. The first two weeks of public hearings are scheduled to begin in Edmonton on Monday, with opening statements from lead counsel Michele Hollins, and reports from experts up first.

CALGARY — The $12.7-billion provincial health superboard and an Edmonton advocate who runs an agency reaching out to street people are among the groups set to make their pitch for intervener status in the upcoming medical system queue-jumping inquiry. Hearings for standing and funding for the judge-led inquiry are set to kick off in Edmonton on Monday.

The chairman of the Alberta Health Services board said today that the organization "erred" when it said last week a new cancer centre for Calgary wasn't on the Stelmach government's priority list for new capital projects.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.